Comment by cookiengineer
1 month ago
Additionally to an OpenWRT [1] Wi-Fi router or Adguard Home [2] DNS proxy that you can run for yourself, there's also this excellent app firewall project called NetGuard [3].
The developer got kicked out of the Play Store for bogus reasons, and had to continue to develop it as an externally funded effort. Support him, buy a pay what you want license, and give him a couple bucks for it if you value open source software like this.
(I'm not affiliated with the project, I just love the app and it runs on all my degoogled devices)
Additionally, degoogle your phone by installing an open source ROM like GrapheneOS [4] or LineageOS [5], and install only the most essential apps on your phone.
There's also App Warden [6] which audits installed apps, by scanning them for malicious libraries and adtrackers. It's based on the dataset provided by Exodus Privacy [7] where you can search for Apps or their APK identifiers and find out what kind of fingerprinting libraries they're using. For example, this is what the Facebook App uses behind the scenes [8].
Don't install gapps and neither the google play services. If you want an app store for the convenience of updates of open source apps, there's also f-droid [9], a libre app store for Android.
Additionally you should keep in mind that every app that needs google play services to run is spyware, by definition of what these services offer as APIs. Websites that require you to install their app to "verify" you are usually spying on your activity.
[1] https://openwrt.org/toh/start
[2] https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/dns/adguard-hom...
[5] https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
[6] https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AppWarden
[7] https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/
[8] https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.faceboo...
It's a bit of a pipedream tbh. I have a pixel and grapheneOS, but the reality of what you need to give up or how much you have to inconvenience yourself makes it unpalatable enough that unless you're life is actually in danger or you have some very extremely tightly held philosophy you refuse to let go of at all costs, then you just wind up compromising to the point where it doesn't necessarily feel worth the trouble.
it really depends on how much you've embraced the tech.
say, my parents own phones but don't do much on them except navigation, photos, messaging, and web browsing. if you're not into Uber, Doordash, mobile banking, and so on, then you're not really giving up much by switching to the alternatives.
generally, it's harder to _remove_ something from your life than it is to forego _adding_ it. if you're content with the functionality of your tech as it exists today, then a feasible route to de-apple/de-google really is to just not start doing too much _new_ with it, and within some number of years you'll find the alternatives have developed to the point where you can switch to them without going backward.
I've never had a router compatible with OpenWRT, so I went with NextDNS instead. Also, PiHole is another alternative
You can simply install GrapheneOS (if you own a Pixel device) instead of workarounds like Netguard. It is hardened for security and privacy.
Care to clarify what these things do and why it’s relevant to the posted article?
I tried to clarify it a little more, but I think if I would go into more detail I should write a separate article about it. It's relevant as to that I'm describing what you can do against the mentioned problems in the article, and how to avoid being surveilled by advertisement conglomerates.